The
African continent – which is so often unjustifiably spoken of collectively and
dismissively throughout the globe as a one entity – can truly claim a unity
through its diverse and eye-opening library of great literature and language.

Whether
it is in the dreamlike magical realism of Ben Okri, the
underlying critiques so carefully yet organically articulated by Nadine Gordimer,
or the poignant and profound work of Assia Djebar, Africa’s
many shapes and sounds have been delivered in a perpetual life poem which has
courageously addressed various social challenges and defined the continent as a
rich and creative Diaspora of contemporary literature.

While
these works detail issues and triumphs which are focused on a particular
region, they also encompass the bigger picture – just take Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart,
for example – which has accumulated some truly remarkable responses to the
heavy footprint of colonialism and the rest of the world’s inability to look at
Africa and African countries separately through an unclouded lens. It is
through language and literature where reclamation, liberation and life
transform, a vital tool through which lies the potential for change, and is
especially crucial in combating the recent challenges which certain parts of
western Africa are facing.

Sunday, September 21, 2014

Over the past century, the position of women in human affairs has
received lots of attention. There has been delineation into several camps and
several groups, each with different ideologies. No matter which camp one
belongs, it seems that the point of convergence remains the belief that women
are different. I use different here both in its pejorative and, of course,
edifying form.

*Michelle Obama

While some see women as deserving of equal (or semi equal) status
with men, most see the woman as an appendage of man hence she should be
subservient and controlled. Whichever way one panders to, all sides in one way
or the other denigrate women. For, what more is denigrating than when women ask
for special treatments through hand-outs? I will not delve into this issue here
as I have already given it special attention in another essay.

Thursday, September 18, 2014

By Festus
Keyamo

I have just read, with some amusement, the position of the Federal Government regarding the cash totaling $9.3 million that was seized by the South African authorities as an attempt was made to smuggle it into that country. from my little understanding, the Federal Government's position can be summarised as follows:

*Keyamo

*That it is aware of the movement of such large sum of money by cash
out of the country.*That
the cash is meant for the purchase of arms to fight insurgency. *That
the transaction was done by cash to ensure the speed of the transaction. *That
it resorted to buy from South
Africa because of procedural bottlenecks in
the purchase of such items from western countries.

The
above position of the Federal Government is not only ludicrous, it is
laughable, untenable and a story only fit to be told to the marines. The
following rhetoric posers are germane to this issue:

Friday, September 12, 2014

Former Governor of Borno State Ali Modu Sheriff, President Goodluck Jonathan and President Idris Derby of Chad in Ndjamena(pix: State House)

By Reuben Abati

We have noted with surprise, the unnecessary hue and cry raised by the All Progressives Congress (APC) and other bigoted critics of the Jonathan Administration over the claim that the President is “hobnobbing” with the former governor of Borno State, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, who was recently accused by the Australian, Stephen Davis, of being one of the chief sponsors of the terrorist group, Boko Haram.

The totally erroneous basis for that charge was the spurious claim that Senator Sheriff accompanied President Jonathan on his recent trip to Ndjamena as a member of his entourage.

Although Senator Sheriff himself has already given the lie to that claim through his Media Adviser, the Presidency wishes to affirm, for the purpose of emphasis, that the former Borno State governor was not on President Jonathan’s delegation to Chad.

Friday, September 5, 2014

The apparently procured,
choreographed and orchestrated interview on Arise Television on
Thursday August 28 in
which a certain Stephen Davies an Australian of the ilk of many white
mercenaries prowling the African continent, accused General Ihejirika of being
a sponsor of Boko Haram is most condemnable.

*Lt. General Ihejirika (pix:Abiastate)In the said interview, Mr Davies did not adduce or suggest any single evidence to support his accusation. Curiously when in the same breadth he said he has knowledge of the sponsor of the Abuja Nyanya bombing he refused to name names. Most tragic in this choreographed defamation of an illustrious General, is the interviewer's unprofessionalism in failing to demand evidence from Ihejirika's accuser, Mr. Stephen Davies. General Ihejirika has since denied this allegation. Given the lack of evidence, the nature of delivery of the allegation and the character of the accused General, Ndigbo Lagos believes Ihejirika's traducers are playing dirty politics.

Thursday, September 4, 2014

The
British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has expanded its repertoire and global
reach to the point where it regularly broadcasts to an American and Arabic audience.
It gives the Americans an opportunity to explore the best of what British
television has or has had to offer and allows an expanding Arabic audience to
feel that they are not forgotten by the Western world. Because services like
this have been positively accepted, it was important that a similar service was
launched for African people in the United Kingdom.

BBC America

BBC
America was launched in 1998 and broadcasts popular British programming such
as Doctor
Who and In The Flesh. What is unique about BBC America is that,
contrary to its name, it does not solely broadcast programmes from the BBC.
Instead, it opts to broadcast popular programming from other British networks
as well as its own. This allows the American audience to gain an understanding
of British television and can also assist British television and film producers
to gain recognition in an otherwise difficult environment to crack. A station
such as this in the United
Kingdom would inevitably do the same for
African filmmakers and television producers.

Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Full Text Of Statement Issued By the People's Democratic Party (PDP) TodayThe Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has noted yet another failed image
laundering stunt by the APC wherein its National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun
cheapened his office and person by attempting to use an unempirical statement
by Australian Dr. Stephen Davis, to absolve his party of blames for promoting
insurgency in the country.

*Olisa MetuhPDP's National Publicity Secretary

Whilst we recognize the right of citizens to hold and canvass opinion in a
democratic setting such as guaranteed under the PDP-led administration, we
hold, and strongly too that such rights must be properly and respectably
exercised.

It is therefore shocking and worrisome that the APC National Chairman, in a
frenzied effort to extricate his party, could issue a statement completely
lacking in validity, character and intellectual content befitting of a National
Chairman of a political party.

Oyegun’s statement rather than exonerate the APC has reinforced and underscored
its true identity as a party of desperate politicians supportive of violence
and disunity through their utterances and body language, a fact that is already
well known to all Nigerians.

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

There is no politically discerning Nigerian who
has not heard the news. Nuhu Ribadu, former Chairman of anti-graft agency, the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), and the presidential candidate
of the now defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in 2011, has defected to
the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from the leading opposition, the All
Progressives Congress (APC), because he wants to govern Adamawa, his home
state.

Nuhu Ribadu

A legitimate
ambition no doubt. But to titivate same in the garb of public good is arrant
nonsense. But that is quintessential Ribadu. He thinks Nigerians are ever
gullible. The office became vacant after Governor Murtala Nyako was
impeached on July 15 by the House of Assembly upon adoption of the report of
the seven-member panel that investigated allegations of gross misconduct
against him.

Ribadu has the inalienable right to belong to
any political party and to pursue whatever political aspiration that appeals to
his ego. But has no right to insult Nigerians in his pursuit. But that
was exactly what he did when he claimed that his defection from the APC to the
PDP was in pursuit of a good cause and not out of selfish interest.

I ordinarily would not have responded to Tom
Ikimi’s lengthy chronicle of falsehoods, cheap blackmail and abuse. My only
reason for this response is that I know Tom Ikimi’s style. He subscribes to the
view that no matter how unbelievable a lie may sound if you brazenly assert it
and repeat it often enough you may persuade many that it is in fact true.
I have seen Ikimi perpetrate this deviousness in his years in public
life.

*Tinubu

1. Regarding Ikimi’s bid for the Chairmanship of the Party. It was clear
to practically everyone who had the interest of the party at heart that we
simply could not have a man of Tom Ikimi’s antecedents as Chair of the party.
As chairman of the NRC, one of the only two political parties in the country
under the military transition programme, Tom Ikimi not only connived with the
then military regime to annul the elections, terminate the democratic process
and sell off his party. He became Abacha’s foreign minister, convincing the
world that heinous state murders like the hanging of Ken Saro Wiwa were just
acts! If Ikimi were the Chair of APC the party would have to sleep with both
eyes open lest its chairman sell off the party before day break. No matter what
anyone may say about me it is unlikely that I can be accused of supporting incompetent
or morally light-weight individuals for important political positions.